Still :-) mostly -- McWhorter on "standard English"

[Robin Hamilton]

> As for Matt Gordon's comment about standard English having been
> "consciously constructed", isn't everyone's language constructed,
> from hearing and reading others?

        [SNIP]

> Joel

All languages are constructed, but some are more constructed than other.
Lallans (or Braid Scots), for example, was very consciously constructed by
Burns (in the eighteenth century) through McDiarmid (in the early twentieth
century on).

In this sense, "Standard English" is certainly less of a conscious construct
than Lallans, but more of a deliberate imposed standard than other dialects
of English.

That the effective social and political priviledging of one dialect of
English over others occurs through the mechanism of journal editors, peer
group reviewing, political process through voters' choice, et alia, etc.,
rather than royal fiat, changes the mechanism, not the result.

Not that Received Standard Written English is a bad thing.  I'm quite happy
to use it when it seems to be called for.  But I wouldn't try to order a
hamburger in a restauraunt in Received Standard English -- "I say, my good
man (or woman, or person as the case my be), would you do me the favour of
providing me with nourishment in the form of ground up cow clasped in a
bun?"

The Wee M'Greegor

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